Online Shopping Cart Usability Tips

This article from the Nielsen Norman Group on supporting user decision making in the ecommerce shopping cart has four useful tips for helping shoppers get to the check out stage.

  1. Provide access to a full shopping cart
  2. Display product details along with a clear product image
  3. Link users to the product page from products in the cart
  4. Let users easily remove items, including setting quantity to zero

This article ties in nicely with an earlier one, which covered 3 ecommerce design trends to follow and 3 to avoid.

Design Trends to Follow

  1. Bigger product images
  2. Better product reviews
  3. Easy to use coupons and discounts

Design Trends to Avoid

  1. Smaller and hidden product descriptions
  2. Insufficient feedback when adding items to the shopping cart
  3. Cluttered customer service pages